Peter Phillippi

Peter PhillippiPhillippi filled a number of different positions during his 41- year teaching career, including 28 years in the Salina school district. At Salina High alone, he had lengthy stints as head football coach, head track coach, assistant basketball coach and athletic director.

Phillippi spent 12 seasons as head football coach from 1938 through 1949, during which Salina won six Central Kansas league titles and finished runner-up five times. Phillippi’s teams went 73-25 with six ties, and his 1945 team finished 8-1. That team was scored on only twice all season, and went 6-0 in the CKL while out-scoring opponents 203-0.

As head track coach, Phillippi’s teams won three league titles in his seven seasons. He served as an assistant coach for the boys basketball team under Earl Morrison for 13 years, helping Salina High to state titles in 1945 and 1950. He was named athletic director in 1952, and during his eight years in that role, established athletic teams at the junior high level for the first time in football, basketball and track.

In 1976, Phillippi was the first Salina High coach to be inducted into the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame.